Examining characteristics, motivations, and career goals of black students who attend historically black colleges and law schools

The present study uses aggregate analyses and a national sample of incoming Black law students to examine characteristics, motivations, and career goals of students who matriculate into law school from an undergraduate historically Black college or university (HBCU) versus an undergraduate traditionally White institution (TWI), and those students who attend a historically Black law school (HBLS) versus a traditionally White law school (TWLS). Students who attended a HBCU versus a TWI pursued a law degree to help influence their community, and reported fewer experiences of discrimination during their undergraduate years. Students who attended a HBLS versus a TWLS experienced more discrimination during the law admissions process, and were less likely to pursue a law degree to work for social justice. Study implications provide an increased understanding of professional motivations of Black students and can be useful to HBCU and HBLS admissions officers in designing programs for outreach and academic support

Validation and Examination of the Educational Benefits of Informal Interactional Diversity Using a National Sample of Incoming Black Law Students

This dissertation research is comprised of two studies aimed at exploring the conceptual meaning, measurement properties, and the influence of informal interactional diversity (IID) on Black undergraduates. Specifically, Study 1 used a volunteer sample and a national sample of Black college students entering their first year of law school to investigate the factor structure of IID and to determine whether measurement equivalence exists for Blacks who attend undergraduate historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) or undergraduate traditionally White institutions (TWIs). In Study 2, exploratory conceptual models were utilized to assess within-group heterogeneity among Black students with respect to the means with which IID and perceptions of racial discrimination were associated with students' self-reported academic engagement and beliefs regarding the educational benefits of diversity. Exploratory models were also used in Study 2 to assess whether IID mediated and moderated the impact of racial discrimination on students' academic engagement and diversity-related beliefs. Data were drawn from a volunteer sample and from the Educational Diversity Project, which is a national, longitudinal, and multi-method research study of law school students. In the first study, results from exploratory factor analysis and multilevel confirmatory factor analysis models indicated that contrary to prediction, only four out of six items derived from prior studies used to investigate the academic advantages of IID had statistically significant factor loadings. Results from multiple group multilevel CFA models also revealed that partial measurement equivalence was established among former HBCU and TWI students. Overall, findings suggested that measures of IID examined in previous studies may not have the same factor structure or conceptual meaning for Black undergraduates, and that further research is needed to generate improved measures of IID for Blacks collegians and students from other racial groups. In Study 2, results showed that as predicted, a revised measure of IID was positively associated with students' reported level of academic engagement and positive diversity beliefs, above and beyond perceptions of racial discrimination. Contrary to predictions, findings also revealed indirect relationships between perceptions of racial discrimination and the two study outcomes through IID, whereby students with discriminatory experiences reported high levels of IID, which in turn, were associated with enhanced engagement and beliefs in favor of diversity.Doctor of Philosoph

Solar Cycle Observations

We describe the defining observations of the solar cycle that provide constraints for the dynamo processes operating within the Sun. Specifically, we report on the following topics: historical sunspot numbers and revisions; active region (AR) flux ranges and lifetimes; bipolar magnetic region tilt angles; Hale and Joy's law; the impact of rogue ARs on cycle progression and the amplitude of the following cycle; the spatio-temporal emergence of ARs that creates the butterfly diagram; polar fields; large-scale flows including zonal, meridional, and AR in-flows; short-term cycle variability; and helioseismic results including mode parameter changes.Comment: 39 pages, 11 figures, ISSI workshop on Solar and Stellar Dynamos (June 2022). Submitted to Space Science Reviews, May 2023. This is the revised version accepted September 202

Base-By-Base: Single nucleotide-level analysis of whole viral genome alignments

BACKGROUND: With ever increasing numbers of closely related virus genomes being sequenced, it has become desirable to be able to compare two genomes at a level more detailed than gene content because two strains of an organism may share the same set of predicted genes but still differ in their pathogenicity profiles. For example, detailed comparison of multiple isolates of the smallpox virus genome (each approximately 200 kb, with 200 genes) is not feasible without new bioinformatics tools. RESULTS: A software package, Base-By-Base, has been developed that provides visualization tools to enable researchers to 1) rapidly identify and correct alignment errors in large, multiple genome alignments; and 2) generate tabular and graphical output of differences between the genomes at the nucleotide level. Base-By-Base uses detailed annotation information about the aligned genomes and can list each predicted gene with nucleotide differences, display whether variations occur within promoter regions or coding regions and whether these changes result in amino acid substitutions. Base-By-Base can connect to our mySQL database (Virus Orthologous Clusters; VOCs) to retrieve detailed annotation information about the aligned genomes or use information from text files. CONCLUSION: Base-By-Base enables users to quickly and easily compare large viral genomes; it highlights small differences that may be responsible for important phenotypic differences such as virulence. It is available via the Internet using Java Web Start and runs on Macintosh, PC and Linux operating systems with the Java 1.4 virtual machine

The Covid Sex Lives Project: Health Messaging, Hooking Up And Dating Among Men Who Have Sex With Men During The UK COVID-19 Pandemic

In the context of the pandemic, government and public health measures to mitigate the spread of coronavirus have been translated into media messaging by organisations that target the health of different groups. Engaging experiences of the minority group, men who have sex with men (MSM), we provide evidence on the approaches and responses to these messages in relation to using digital platforms to connect for sexual purposes. Dating and hookup applications, or apps, are a key area where sex and romance has been negotiated over the past two decades, a trend which continued during the pandemic. MSM are an ideal group to look at the challenges posed here as they have been early adopters of these technologies for a variety of purposes, including the obvious ones related to dating and hooking up as well as for increasing more general sociality and reducing loneliness. Due to this culture of engagement with digital media by MSM, and what is known about their sexual cultures, digital platforms have been engaged by health educators in an attempt to improve the sexual health and wellbeing of this group. The question in the context of a pandemic therefore becomes: how are these sexual cultures affected, and how might health messaging be engaged with, or not

BMP-9 induced endothelial cell tubule formation and inhibition of migration involves Smad1 driven endothelin-1 production.

BACKGROUND: Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) and their receptors, such as bone morphogenetic protein receptor (BMPR) II, have been implicated in a wide variety of disorders including pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). Similarly, endothelin-1 (ET-1), a mitogen and vasoconstrictor, is upregulated in PAH and endothelin receptor antagonists are used in its treatment. We sought to determine whether there is crosstalk between BMP signalling and the ET-1 axis in human pulmonary artery endothelial cells (HPAECs), possible mechanisms involved in such crosstalk and functional consequences thereof. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDING: Using western blot, real time RT-PCR, ELISA and small RNA interference methods we provide evidence that in HPAECs BMP-9, but not BMP-2, -4 and -6 significantly stimulated ET-1 release under physiological concentrations. This release is mediated by both Smad1 and p38 MAPK and is independent of the canonical Smad4 pathway. Moreover, knocking down the ALK1 receptor or BMPR II attenuates BMP-9 stimulated ET-1 release, whilst causing a significant increase in prepro ET-1 mRNA transcription and mature peptide release. Finally, BMP-9 induced ET-1 release is involved in both inhibition of endothelial cell migration and promotion of tubule formation. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Although our data does not support an important role for BMP-9 as a source of increased endothelial ET-1 production seen in human PAH, BMP-9 stimulated ET-1 production is likely to be important in angiogenesis and vascular stability. However, increased ET-1 production by endothelial cells as a consequence of BMPR II dysfunction may be clinically relevant in the pathogenesis of PAH

Masculinity and Race-Related Factors as Barriers to Health Help-Seeking Among African American Men

Men’s tendency to delay health help-seeking is largely attributed to masculinity, but findings scarcely focus on African-American men who face additional race-related, help-seeking barriers. Building principally on reactance theory, we test a hypothesized model situating racial discrimination, masculinity norms salience, everyday racism (ERD), racial identity (RI), sense of control (SOC) and depressive symptomatology as key barriers to African-American men’s health help-seeking. 458 African-American men were recruited primarily from U.S. barbershops in the Western and Southern regions. The primary outcome was Barriers to Help-Seeking Scale (BHSS) scores. The hypothesized model was investigated with confirmatory factor and path analysis with tests for measurement invariance. Our model fit was excellent χ2(4,N = 457) = 3.84, p > .05; CFI = .99; TLI = 1.00; RMSEA = .00, and 90% CI [.00, .07] and operated equivalently across different age, income, and education strata. Frequent ERD and higher MNS contributed to higher BHHS scores. The relationship between ERD exposure and BHHS scores was partially mediated by diminished SOC and greater depressive symptomatology. Interventions aimed at addressing African-American men’s health help-seeking should not only address masculinity norms, but also threats to sense of control, and negative psychological sequelae induced by everyday racism

The Moderating Capacity of Racial Identity Between Perceived Discrimination and Psychological Well-Being Over Time Among African American Youth: Discrimination and Well-Being

The present study examined the influence of racial identity in the longitudinal relationship between perceptions of racial discrimination and psychological well-being for approximately 560 African American youth. Latent curve modeling (LCM) and parallel process multiple-indicator LCMs with latent moderators were used to assess whether perceptions of racial discrimination predicted the intercept (initial levels) and the slope (rate of change) of psychological well-being over time, and whether racial identity moderates these relationships. The results indicated that African American adolescents who reported higher psychological responses to discrimination frequency levels at the first time point had lower initial levels of well-being. Regressing the slope factor for psychological well-being on frequency of discrimination also revealed a non-significant result for subsequent well-being levels

Beliefs About Cancer and Diet among Those Considering Genetic Testing for Colon Cancer

To assess beliefs about the role of diet in cancer prevention among individuals considering genetic testing for Lynch Syndrome